Local weightlifter inducted to Canadian Hall of Fame

In weightlifting, David Desroches has found the near-perfect fit, even if it only became more obvious later in life.

The 60-year-old local lifter became the latest qualified inductee into the Canadian Masters Weightlifting Hall of Fame recently, capturing his seventh straight national title.

It wasn't always this way for the father of five, with a youngest daughter who is but eight years old. The Sarnia native may have been first introduced to the sport while still a teenager, but success, on a national level, would remain a few years away.

"There were lots of smaller competitions that I could go to when I was younger," said Desroches. "I got to enjoy a certain amount of success in competitions that matched my level. I never even dreamed of Canadian championships at that time."

"I couldn't even make the qualifying total." From the age of fifteen through to his late twenties, Desroches perfected his technique, competing initially in the 132lb weight class, and never wandering more than 10-15 pounds or so beyond that.

"I made the cardinal error that every small lifter makes," said Desroches. "You do everything you can to stay light, so that you don't have to compete against the big boys."

Taking some time away from the sport, he worked part-time as a bouncer, allowing his weight to reach a more "natural" level in and around the 200 pound mark by the time he reached the masters classification at the age of 35.

His return to weightlifting was somewhat happenstance. "It just so happened that the boys that bounced were all working out in the gym," Desroches recalled. "I wandered in and realized that my body was still fine, because the technique had saved me."

Things started to click. "I was just as fast at 200 pounds as I was at 130, except now I had this mass to work with with the weights that I never had before," Desroches continued. "I could now wander into Canadians and at least be competitive."

"From (age) 35 to 45, I wasn't seeing a drop in the weights that I could lift. Typically, what they have noticed is that you should have a 20% drop every five year increment. I hit fifty, and I was still doing the same weights."

"It started to sink in that I'm on to something," Desroches added. "I'm not deviating from my training. I'm using the same manual that I've always had from my coach." The hours of effort that had gone into perfecting a technical lift for the scrawny 130-pound teenager had paid dividends, big time.

"If you consistently have good technique, not only do you lift more, but your body doesn't get abused nearly as much." While Desroches remains more than competitive in both the snatch and the clean and jerk, is it the former that generally separates him from the crowd.

"The snatch is by far the more technical of the two lifts," Desroches noted. "It's all balance and timing. In the snatch, picture taking the entire weight, lifting as high as you can, and diving underneath the bar to catch it."

"Your timing, your balance, have to be exact." Working with a 115 day cycle in advance of his competitions these days, Desroches fights most with the mental aspect of the sport, the "demons", as he calls them.

"The mental battle is tough, sticking with it and believing it will come." The issue is that he no longer follows any kind of incremental progress in his weights. He can be just two to three weeks out from nationals, and still not lifting his starting weight comfortably.

"My cycle is not gradual, and in the last two weeks, it finally comes together." In fact, it is from the shoulders up where the final piece of the puzzle really came together for Desroches, not long after his arrival in Sudbury in 2002.

A year later, he would marry Fay Biglow, a psychology major. Distanced now from long-time coach Cal Stevenson, Desroches opted to take a different, and somewhat unconventional route.

"My coach in Sudbury had bailed on me with one week to go before an event," recalled Desroches. "I was left hanging." Enter Biglow, with little or no knowledge of weightlifting, but a wonderful finger on the pulse of her athlete.

"I had done this (lifting) a million times," said Desroches. "I had never really given much thought about how she could help me mentally. It just turned out that she could read me much better, could understand me much better."

Before too long, Desroches was amassing points, based on his performance at various events, that would see him climbing the ladder towards an induction into the Masters Hall of Fame.

"I think I was at about forty points when I noticed my name on the list," he said. "There really weren't that many people making it, so you don't give it much thought. You don't plan on seven Canadian titles."

But that is exactly the legacy that Dave Desroches has written, one in which he justifiably shares with a grade deal of pride.

Editorial Note: One hundred points are required in order to be eligible for induction in the Canadian Masters Weightlifting Hall of Fame. In reviewing the records in preparation for this story, I also noted that current Sudbury native Martin Walt is within shouting distance, having accumulated 91 points to date.